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Tamira Paszek’s wonderful Wimbledon run came to an abrupt end on Court 18 when the 16-year-old Austrian was well beaten by Russian fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Paszek, who had underlined her meteoric rise towards the world top 50 with a third-round win over Elena Dementieva on Wednesday, struggled in a 6-3 6-2 defeat to the former US Open champion.

Kuznetsova, who has twice previously reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals, possesses the sort of booming baseline game which can club less physical opponents into submission.

Her tactics, mixed with Paszek’s understandable nerves, enabled her to seize control from the start, claiming the one early break she required to claim the first set.

Paszek started her first service game of the second set with a double-fault, hastening her demise as Kuznetsova rounded off victory with the minimum of fuss.

The 21-year-old Russian thus emerged as a live contender for the women’s title, and is guaranteed to provide the winner of Venus Williams’ clash with Maria Sharapova with a stern test in the last eight.